Improvement in sewing-machines



4 Sheets'Sheet 1.

Patented Aug. 12,185].

i. M. SINGER.

Sewing Machine;

m: Nuams PETERS co, PHOTO-L\THQ., msnme'rom n. c.

4 Sheets-Sheet 2. I. M. SINGER.

Sewing Machine.

Patented Aug. 12, 1851.

LUI.

4 SheetsSheet I. M.- SINGER.

Sewing Machine.

No. 8,294 Patented Aug. 12, 1851.

, 4 Sheets-Sheet 4. l. M. SINGER.

- Sewing Machine.

No. 8,294. Patented Aug. 12, 1851.

fi'any v V UNITED STATES- ISAAC M. smenn, on NEW YORK, N. Y.-

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 8,294, dated August 12, IP51.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LISAA c M. SINGER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Machine for SewingSeams in Cloth and other Substances; and I do hereby declare'th'at the following is afull, clear, and exact descrip tion thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine; Fig. 2,-aside elevation; Fig. 3, a plan of the table with the plates that cover the shuttle re moved Fig. 4, a vertical section passing through and in the plane of the cam-shaft; Fig. 5, a cross-section passing between the carriage of the shuttle-driver and the wheel that carries the crank-pin, and looking toward the front of the machine; and Fig. 6, a section of ieedqnotion.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

My present invention is of improvements on a machine heretofore invented by me and for which an application is now'pending.

The first part of my present invention re-' lates to the method of carrying the shuttle; and it consists in operating the shuttle by a driver, between the ends of which the shuttle lies with a slight play, so that when the driver acts on the back end of the shuttle to force-it through the loop formed by the thread on the needle there'is sufficient space between the forward end of the driver and the shuttle for the passage of the thread, and at the end of this motion the shuttle remains in a state of rest for an instant while the driver receives a slight back movement to permit the passage. of the thread between the back end of the shuttle and the iver when the needle draws the stitch.

The second part of my present invention relates to the method of drawing the stitch by the shuttle; and it consists in giving to the shuttle, after the needle has been drawn out of the loop, a slight additional forward movement as the needle is completing its upward movement and at the time the feed motion is given to the cloth, by means of which there are three pulls given simultaneously-viz., the upward pull of the needle on the needle-thread, the feed motion of the cloth in one direction, and of the shuttle in the opposite directionure on the thread as the needle descends.

The thread from the friction-bobbin'must pass through a guide connected with the needle- .carrier, so that as the needle rises the thread shall be 'drawn tight to form the stitch, and from this it follows that as the needle descends, and with it the guide, the thread will form a loop above the cloth, which is liable to be caught or to be cut by the needle. with the view to obviate this in my previous invention, to which I have above referred, I carried the thread through a spring-guide, the tension of which took up the slack as the needle descended, and although this answered the purpose to a certain extent, yet, if there was not suihcien't friction presented to the thread by the cloth, the moment the needle began to rise the tension of the spring drew out the loop, so that the shuttle failed to pass through the loop, particularly when working rapidly,

in which case the rebound of the spring was very apt to draw out the loop; The defects of the spring-guide are, however, entirely obviated by the employment of a friction-pad, which, being inert, presents sufiicient resistance to the thread, as the needle descends, to prevent the making of slack above the-cloth, andyet not sufficient to prevent the needle from drawing the thread through to make the loop below; and when the needle rises there is no tendency to draw out the loop, the frictionpad simply holding the thread in place.

The fourth part of my present invention consists in placing the friction-bobbin, from which the thread is drawn by the needle, or an adjustable arm attached to the frame, so that'its angle, relatively to the guide on the needle-carrier through which the thread passes, can be changed at will, so that by chang ing the position of the arm the motion of the needle-carrier will draw out more or less thread, as may be required. In my previous machine, to which reference has been made, the bobbin was carried by the needle-carrier, and hence the motion of thenccdle had to be equal to the length of thread required to form the loop, which was object onable, as in with a range of motion just suffieient to formthe stitch, and then regulate the length of thread at pleasure for the loop.

And the last part of my invention relates to the method of feeding the cloth during the operation ofscwing to determine the length of the stitches. Heretofore the cloth has either been slipped onto teeth. arranged in a bar or on the periphery of a feeding-wheel, which is objectionable for the reason that the cloth is pierced by the numerous pins; and there was great difiiculty of turning the cloth to sew.

curved seams when thus held by pins. To avoid these objections, the nature of this part of my invention consists in moving the cloth by the friction-surface of a wheel, whose periphery is formed with very fine grooves, the edges of which are slightly serrated, against which surface the cloth is pressed by a spring plate or pad. In the accompanying drawings, a represents the frame, and b the needle on the lower end of the carrier, constructed and operated in manner similar to my previous invention above referred to. The thread 0 comes from a bobbin, (1, which turns on a stud, c, and held by friction in any desired manner to prevent it from turning freely. .From this bobbin the thread passes through a guide, f, attached to and moving with the needle-carrier, and thence it passes through the eye of the needle some distance above the point.

The stud c, on which the bobbin turns, is

- on the outer end of an arm, 9, secured by a screw, h, to the frame, so that the bobbin can be elevated or depressed to any extent desired. If the .bobbin be elevated to the position represented by dotted lines 2', the end of the thread being held by the cloth, it will be seen that the length of thread drawn from the'bobbin to make the loop for the passage of the shuttle will be equal to the range of motion of the needie, and, if depressed to the position repre sented by the dotted lines 3', that the length drawn from the bobbin will be double the range of motion of the needle, and that this quantity will vary as the bobbin is either elevated or depressed. In this way, whatever may be the range of motion of the needle, the length of thread for the loop for various qualities of sewing can be varied at pleasure by simply shitting the position 'of the bobbin.

The clothto be sewed is placed on the table of the frame, and resting on the periphery of the feeding-wheel 7s, and pressed thereto by a plate, Z, on the end-of a sliding bar, m, which is forced down by a helical spring, it. Instead of arming the periphery of the feed-wheel with adj usting-nuts.

-hold on the periphery of the wheel.

pins, as heretofore, a fine thread is out thereon, or, instead of threads, fine parallel grooves can be out; but in either case the threads or fillets between the grooves are brought to a sharp edge, and if made of cast-iron, these edges, by the breaking of the metal, will become slightly serrated; but if made of wroughtiron, they should be slightly serrated by any appropriate instrument. When the cloth is pressed against this surface, so grooved and serrated, a su'ffieient hold is taken of the surface of the cloth to move it forward without slipping, and without the necessity of piercing the cloth; and therefore the attendant can turn the cloth, as may be desired, to sew curved seams, which could not be done conveniently when pins on the periphery of the wheel passed through the cloth.

The feeding motion is given to the fecd-wheel by means of aknuckle, o, jointed to alever, p, that turns on the hub q of the wheel, so thatwhen the lever 12 is moved in the direction of the arrow the outer end of the knuckle o is forced in contact with the inner periphery of the feed-wheel with sufficient force to turn it without the necessity of cutting teeth on the said periphery. The required motion for operating the lever and knuckle is obtained from. a cam, r, on the camshaft s, which at every revolution acts on an arm, 2, of a rock-shaft, a, which carries another arm, 1, connected by alink, w, with the lever 19, and provided with There is a spring, 00, which bears on thearm p of thelever p to force back the said arm and knuckle themoment the cam has'passed, that the knuckle may take'a new As there are no. teeth on the periphery of the'wheel, and the knuckle acts on it simply by the bite of the surfaces, it will be perceived that any desired motion can be given to the wheel by simply regulating the play of the lever. The play of the lever is regulated by the length of the link which connects it with the arm o of the rocker, the interposed spring answering the purpose of carrying back the arm and the rocker.

The shuttle a is semi-cylindrical, with the forward end pointed and the back end rounded. It slides in a groove, 1), in the table of the frame, and is embraced between theends of a driver, c--thatis, one end of the driver rests against the back end of the shuttle, and the other end of the driver against a shoulder formed by cutting out a part of the conical part of the forward end of the shuttle.

The shuttle should have suflicient play between the ends of thedriver for the free passage of a thread between it and a driver at one end when the two are in contact with the other, and vice versa.

The driver isattached to and operated by a carriage, d, adapted to slide in appropriate ways e c in the frame, and this carriage is formed with a cam-groove, f, in which fits and rnns'a crank-pin, of a wheel, h, on the cam-shaft. The form of the cam-groove f is represented in Fig. 5, and is such that as the crank-pin passes from the point 1 to 2 in the direction of the arrow it carries the shuttle back, the needle at the same time descending to carry the thread through the cloth, and as the needle rises forming the thread below the cloth into a loop. The shuttle moves forward by the passage of the crank-pin in the direction of the arrow from the point 2 to 3' in the cam-groove, thus causing the shuttleto enter the loop, the thread passing betweenthe point of the shuttle and the forward end of the driver. The shuttleis then brought to a state of rest by the continued motion of the crank-pin in a return direction in the cam-groove from the point 3 to 4, where it is concentric with the crank. From the point 4 to 5 the groove runs a little within the circle to give a slight back motion to the shuttle-driver, that-the thread may pass between the back end of the shuttle and the driver as the needle rises to draw the stitch, and then from 5 to 6 the groove runs a little out of the circle to force the shuttle forward to draw the shuttle-thread at the same time the feed motion is given to thecloih in the opposite direction, and while the needle completes its upward motion, thus drawing the .two threads simultaneously to complete and draw the stitch tight on both faces of the cloth. The motions above described are then repeated for another stitch. The thread as it passes from the loop on the needle carrier to the needle passes under a spring-pad, j, attached to the frame, which pad makes ,a gentle pressure on it, so that as the needle descends to carry the thread through the cloth the slack formed by the descent of the needle shall be all above this pad instead of being just aboveihe cloth, where it would be liable to tangle What I claim as .my invention, and desire.

to secure byLetters Patent, is- 1; Giving to the shuttle an additional for "ward motion after it has beenstopped to close the loop, as described, for the purpose of drawing the stitch tight, when such additional motion is given at and in combination with the feed motion of the cloth in the reverse direction, and the final upward motion of the needle, as described, so that the two threads shall be drawn tight at the same time, as described.

2. Controlling the thread during the downward motion of the needle by the combination of a friction-pad to prevent the slack above the cloth, with the eye on the needle-carrier for drawing back the thread, for the purposes and in the manner substantially as described;

3. Placing the bobbin from which the needle is supplied with thread on an adjustable arm attached to the "frame, substantially as de-- scribed, when this is combined with the carrying of the said thread through an eye or guide attached to and moving with tlicnieedle-carrier, as described, whereby any desiredlength' of thread can be given for the formation of the loop without varying the rangeof motion of the needle, as described.

ISAAC M. SINGER. Witnesses:

C. AUsToN BROWNE, WM. H. BISHOP. 

